Fearing the high mortality rate among apprentice sweeps (who are forced to climb inside chimneys and remove soot by hand), Sharpe flees to the Rookery, a slum in St Giles, and is taken in by prostitute (and later bar owner) Maggie Joyce. Because of this, he is eventually sold to a master chimney sweep to train as an apprentice at the relatively late age of 12. He is malnourished and regularly beaten, resulting in his being undersized for his age. With no other known relatives to claim him, Sharpe is deposited in Jem Hocking's foundling home at Brewhouse Lane, Wapping, where he spends his days picking his assigned quota of oakum. When Sharpe is three, his mother is killed in the Gordon Riots. Richard Sharpe is born in London circa 1777 (he believes that he may be 22 during the early months of 1799) to a prostitute residing in "Cat Lane" and possibly a French smuggler. The author also avoided further mention of Sharpe's black hair (Bean's hair being blond). Cornwell was so impressed with Bean's portrayal that he expanded Sharpe's backstory to have him growing up in Yorkshire to account for Bean's accent.
Sharp sean bean series#
Sean Bean played Sharpe in the British television series Sharpe. The author had intended to write 11 novels, the same number as in the Hornblower series, ending with Sharpe's Waterloo, but later changed his mind and continued writing. Struggling to come up with a name as distinctive as Horatio Hornblower, he used a placeholder based on the rugby union player Richard Sharp eventually, he kept it, just adding an "e". He could not get a green card or work permit, so he wrote the first Sharpe novel to make a living. As a further inducement, he fell in love with an American woman who, for various reasons, could not leave the United States, so he relocated. When he could not find a similar series for the British Army, he decided to write it himself. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels, which depict a Royal Navy officer's career from midshipman to Admiral of the Fleet and retirement.
In contrast to the honourable Horatio Hornblower, the inspiration for the series, Sharpe is a rogue, an unabashed thief and murderer who has no qualms about killing a bitter enemy when the opportunity arises. He becomes a highly skilled and experienced leader of light troops. Sharpe is described as "brilliant but wayward" in Sharpe's Sword, and he is portrayed by the author as a "loose cannon". Cornwell sees to it that he is improbably present at many important battles of the British Empire at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, including the Battle of Waterloo. It is a mixed blessing, as he constantly has to fight class prejudice in an army where an officer's rank is often purchased without regard to qualification. He is made an officer, an ensign, when he saves the life of his commanding officer, Arthur Wellesley (the future Duke of Wellington), during the Battle of Assaye. He has to flee the city after killing a man to protect Maggie.Įnlisting in the army, he is promoted to sergeant as a reward for completing a highly dangerous spying mission in India.
He is eventually taken in by prostitute (and later bar owner) Maggie Joyce and becomes a thief. Orphaned at an early age, he grows up in poverty.
Sharpe is born to a whore in the rookeries of London. His military career ends with the final defeat of Napoleon, but he has more adventures as a civilian.
He begins in Sharpe's Tiger as a private in the 33rd Regiment of Foot who is continually promoted, finally rising to lieutenant colonel in Sharpe's Waterloo. The stories formed the basis for an ITV television series featuring Sean Bean in the title role.Ĭornwell's series is composed of many novels and several short stories, and charts Sharpe's progress in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars, though the novels were published in non-chronological order. Sharpe is a series of historical fiction stories by Bernard Cornwell centred on the character of British soldier Richard Sharpe.
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